Consultation on the Scottish Governement Response to the UK Apprenticeship Levy

Published:13 Jul 2016

ISBN:

9781786523563

The UK Government announced its plans to introduce a UK wide Apprenticeship Levy from April 2017. Employers will pay 0.5% of their annual pay bill in excess of £3m through the PAYE system. It will be for Scottish Ministers to decide how Scotland's share

Foreword by Jamie Hepburn MSP, Minister for Employability &
Training

Modern Apprenticeships play an increasingly important part in
Scotland's approach to workforce development and youth employment.
In partnership with employers and training providers, the Scottish
Government has increased the number of Modern Apprenticeship
opportunities to 26,000 in 2016/17. As part of Scotland's Youth
Employment Strategy
Developing the Young Workforce we are committed to growing
the number of opportunities to 30,000 a year by 2020.

The introduction of the
UK wide Apprenticeship
Levy was announced by the
UK Government. This was
done without any prior consultation with the Scottish Government
and the other Devolved Administrations, despite apprenticeship
policy being a fully devolved matter.

The Scottish Government is committed to working with employers
to shape our response to the introduction of the Apprenticeship
Levy. We want to take full account of employers' views on how Levy
funding coming to Scotland can be used to benefit employers,
individuals and our economy as a whole.

From our early discussions with employers there is a strong
commitment to protecting our distinctive Scottish approach to
providing high quality apprenticeship opportunities which respond
to the current and future needs of the Scottish economy.

However the employers we have spoken to have suggested a more
flexible approach which sees Levy funding to support workforce
development more widely while protecting the development of the
apprenticeship programme.

While ultimately decisions on the use of Levy funding will have
to be taken against the backdrop of ongoing austerity imposed by
the
UK Government, the input
of employers and other interested parties through this consultation
will contribute significantly to the Government's response. I
encourage you to respond to this consultation to aid that work.